Breaking the 1 minute, 50 second barrier in the 800 meters in 2006 put Mark Miller in an elite class. Miller won the Big Ten outdoor individual title last season in that event, but little did he know it would take him nearly 11 months to get back to the standard he had achieved.
The Nittany Lions junior followed his personal best time with a disappointing performance in the NCAA regionals. The sting of the race admittedly carried over into this year's indoor season, where he failed to break the 1:50.0 mark and finished third in the Big Ten Indoor Championships.
The setback from last year's season-ending performance and the disappointment from an underachieving indoor season have given Miller plenty of urgency this outdoor season.
"In indoors, I wasn't running with much purpose, and I definitely have purpose in the outdoor season," Miller said. "Last year, the Big Ten meet went really well, but then going to regionals and trying to qualify for nationals, I didn't live up to the expectations. It was a little disappointing at the end of last year's season. I am definitely using it as motivation."
This past weekend at the Sea Ray Relays at the University of Tennessee, Miller finally got back into elite company. He used a strong finish to beat the rest of the field with a season-best time of 1:49.81. The result was a relief to Miller, who expected to reach the mark several times in the indoor season.
Despite not breaking the 1:50.0 barrier, Penn State assistant coach John Gondak did not see Miller's earlier results as a product of poor preparation. Gondak believed he just needed to get in the right race to have a breakout performance.
"You can't go out and break 1:50.0 running from the front by yourself," Gondak said. "You got to be in a race where you have other people you can compete with, where it goes out fast. In indoors, we were just never really in a position to do that."
Even though the Sea Ray Relay had a stronger field than some of Miller's other races, the beginning of the race did not start out that fast.
"Even this past weekend, the race went out sort of slow," Gondak said. "It [the first 400 meters] was out in 54 [seconds] flat, which shows his strength that he can go out in 54 and come back and basically have an even split with a 55 [in the last 400 meters]."
The strength that Miller displayed in the last half of the race can be contributed to the added attention to aerobic workouts in practice. Miller has always been known for his speed, but the extra distance training is aimed at helping his finishing kicks to races.
Miller likes to describe himself as a hybrid of the two types of 800 runners. Some people like to start out blazing fast and try to hold on at the end, while others sit back and wait to make their move.
"I just like getting in the middle of the pack, keeping myself out of trouble but in position to strike," he said.
Miller hopes to stay on the prowl with some of the seasons most important races coming up in the next month. His best performance of the 2007 campaign comes before the Penn Relays, the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and the NCAA regionals.
Now that he broke the 1:50.0 barrier once again, Miller will turn his attention to the ultimate goal that has been on his mind since last year's regionals.
"NCAAs is definitely the No. 1 goal. Then, getting there and competing well is the next step," Miller said. "But getting there is the No. 1 goal, it's what I have been working for all season."
